I had very mixed feelings while reading Hey, Zoey. The premise seemed pretty straightforward and sounded similar to other AI/sex robot stories, which is an oddly specific sub-genre that seems to be having its moment in the literary sun. The writing was choppy with abrupt changes in time and place. It made the book move swiftly, but it was jarring as a reader. I also found the ending unsatisfying. It may be due to the book's marketing, but I was expecting something very different with this novel. Even so, I'll be curious to see what else the writer comes out with in the future.

I was expecting a book about a woman catching her husband with a sex doll who was AI capabilities. I was hoping for a more in-depth look at what AI means for romantic relationships in the future, when not only your physical needs can be fulfilled, but so can your emotional needs via AI. Instead, I received speculative fiction about a woman and her life, via flashbacks. The flashbacks were quite abrupt and often added nothing to the plot. The side plot with the student didn’t feel relevant a lot of the time. Zoey, the doll, is hardly a part of the book at all. Still enjoyed most of the story, but a lot of the characters communication styles really bothered me and the ending is unsatisfying.

Thank you Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for this ARC.

This book was very strange right off the get go however it was a quick read that I found myself drawn into almost immediately. This is a story that mainly focuses around our main character Dolores. This book starts off in a weird place and just continues deeper however the author made it very relatable as you could slowly see how things were happening. When Dolores finds her husband's sex doll in the garage one morning she is shocked. After an argument and a lot of unresolved issues the two part ways, however poor Dolores is left with the pre mentioned doll. With no one in her life to talk to and a desperate need for connection Dolores finds herself communicating with Zoey as the doll becomes more and more a major part of her life. This book was full of short sentences that while sometimes can make a book feel choppy seemed to fit perfectly with the narrative. I found this book overall to be very compelling and I had to see how things were going to turn out and every time I thought it couldn't get any crazier I was surprised by more. This is the kind of book that is unlike anything I have ever read in the past or will read in the future because of the style of writing that Sarah used it stands strong all by itself. I really enjoyed how as a reader we were shown the progression of Dolores finding Zoey confronting her husband and then slowly things changing. I couldn't wait to see how this would end. While I loved the beginning the middle and the end of this book was very strange to me and a bit hard to comprehend. Pretty good read overall and while I have mixed emotions with the ending I can say that it mostly lived up to my expectations.

Dolores discovers her husband's sex doll and when confronted, he opts for separation rather than discussion. It's clear this was merely the last straw in their loveless, dead bedroom marriage. Post-separation, Dolores ends up with the AI companion and is troubled by her own inability to differentiate between "woman" and "object." She scrambles to save everyone around her (sister, mother, student) rather than herself.

I'll admit it's a little fun to hate our protagonist. She hilariously feels she is a victim of her husband's sex toy, as this is the one piece of her life that she is unable to manipulate and control into her perfect narrative. Her interactions with both students and colleagues are bizarrely inappropriate but not for any calculated, selfish gain - she's just ignorant and annoying while perceiving herself as helpful. We find out towards the end of the story there is One Big Reason why she's so insufferable, a plot device which felt entirely out of sync with the earlier relations depicted in the story.

Hey, Zoey is generally well-written and I suspect I might enjoy other novels by Crossan, but this one was a bit disappointing as far as stories about AI sex robots go. 2.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown & Co. for the e-arc in exchange for my honest review.

“Hey, Zoey. I really enjoyed this book.”
“I knew you would.”
“How could you possibly know that?”
“Because I know you, Venus. I know you.”

This is the kind of weird I’m always looking for.
Dolores is an Irish teacher who is in a sinking marriage with her husband, David. She works as a teacher, only has one friend, and has lied to herself about her childhood trauma for years and years. Her beloved sister, Jacinta, is living in New York and not dealing with her childhood trauma either. Their family was seriously a mess, and nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody wants to talk in general.
One day, Dolores find a very lifelike sex doll in the garage. This is the tension that ultimately causes her and David to split, and the awakening Dolores needs to confront the demons she’s kept at bay.
The doll, Zoey, becomes a staple in Dolores’s life. Dolores talks to Zoey, watches films with her, even introduces her to her friend. Zoey -in all of her hilarity- is who Dolores needs in that moment. She is a stand in friend, lover, sister. Zoey is… Zoey.
We watch Dolores unfold her life and past with a fleshy robot right beside her. It is raw, smart, hilarious and sad. Even with Zoey’s 18 inch cavities, Dolores’s emotional baggage couldn’t fit.
3.5/5

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of these thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is an odd, but entertaining novel about Dolores and David's marriage that implodes when Dolores finds his silicone sex-doll. "She" is beautiful and voluptuous of course, but Dolores is still shocked to her core that her anesthetist husband would buy such an expensive "toy" and then hide it from her! So what's left for her to do but "befriend" the doll as it can at least keep her company since she's a teacher and can't fraternize with her students outside of school. It's often funny--sometimes creepy-- but so unusual that I had to keep reading.
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

I saw the premise of this book and quickly assumed I was the target audience. I absolutely love a story with a seemingly silly or weird plotline but with a twist of sincerity and insightfulness. I thought I was going into something more along the lines of Lars and the Real Girl and/ or Dummy (the show).

For me, this ended up missing the mark. It felt more like a snippet of life along the lines of Sally Rooney so it didn’t quite feel there was any sort of resolution. Not that there was a lot of conflict despite an inner turmoil but I kept waiting for more talks with Zoey that delved deeper or at least funnier.

There was an underlining feminist undertone while also still judging and demeaning women for wanting to have plastic surgery or choose how they want to look whether it fits into the male gaze or not. This could very much be the characters perspective and not the authours but because it didn’t delve deeper, it was something I could not decipher and never did in the end.

The “twist” in the end had to do with SA and while I’m not surprised, I wish it was again more honed in. Instead of revealing this underlying issue in the last act. I wish it came sooner as it would’ve brought the depth I found was lacking. Overall, I liked the premise and wasn’t mad at it and enjoyed the authours writing but continually wished I received more from this in terms of philosophy, feminism, psychology, comedy etc.

I found myself really into this one and excited to see where it'd go at first, but it definitely didn't go in the direction I wanted it to, which was surprising because it seemed like it's be a straight-forward (almost cliche) premise. this book unfolded in unexpected ways and while I think it was good writing, it felt messy, unexpected and ultimately disappointing.

I had expected to find this story really engaging but sadly, the plot did not hold my attention.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the eARC for an honest review of the book.

I was really excited by the premise of the book. I thought it might end up more like a Black Mirror episode. A wife takes in her husband’s AI sex doll. Zoey wasn’t really in the book much, or her interactions, at least. I wish it had gone a bit further. A more sci-fi route.

The book was confusing. Jumping around in time all over the place. I had to go back more than once to remember what period of time I was in. But just as things were getting good and it was going somewhere the book ended. The ending was abrupt and I wasn’t even sure what was going on.

I would loved to have seen more with Zoey.

This book was not great. I thought the premise was interesting if not a bit overplayed. There have been other very similar stories played out on books and tv recently. I found this one fell flat and I did not find it interesting in any way

This book's description was very misleading. It barely included the AI doll, and it was hard to follow along with the story. I did not like the writing style of this book, I was expecting more SCI-FI from the book. A book I would compare it to is The School for Good Mothers but unlike that book, this one was nothing like the description. Looking back now it does say it is women's fiction and not SCI-FI but I don't understand how you have such a cool premise of a book and then just write about something completely different.

I think part of my issue with this book came down to marketing and my own expectations. Based on the cover and description, I expected a very different story. In the publishers' defense, this novel doesn't seem to know what it wants to be.

I read a review that said the sex doll part of the plot wasn't needed, which is funny considering that's what it's supposedly about. But I agree, to a point. It did seem out of place. The story was really dominated by Dolores's childhood and a secret she's hidden since then--one that's affected her in ways she's just beginning to realize. The story goes back and forth from present time to her growing up in a home with her mom, sister, stepfather, and stepbrother. The past vignettes don't move linearly, so we don't always know where in time we are.

The lack of chronology in the flashbacks didn't bother me as much as other readers. I was initially surprised at Crossan's focus on Dolores's family, as I expected more of the story to be devoted to her relationship with her husband, David (the buyer of the aforementioned doll).

SPOILER ALERT

TW: sexual assault

David leaves the narrative for the most part early on, and we never really get a good sense of what his marriage to Dolores was like. We also spend a lot of time with Dolores at work, where she's an administrator of some sort at a high school. We get extended plots about mock interviews and revenge porn and misbehavior and potential statutory rape. I found most of it boring and a distraction from the crux of the novel, which turned out to be the childhood sexual abuse both Dolores and her sister Jacinta suffered at the hands of their stepbrother, Gavin.

It didn't come completely out of nowhere. Crossan teases it throughout the book, mentioning how David never liked Gavin and how, when Dolores lost her virginity, her lover said there's no way she was a virgin with the way she performed. But the way it was slowly revealed made me feel sort of uncomfortable. It becomes apparent that Dolores has been abused by someone in her family, but Crossan hints at it and gradually reveals details so it becomes a gross sort of guessing game.

Dolores confronts her stepbrother after Jacinta attempts suicide, and the book ends shortly thereafter. The first half of the book was slow-going then it ramped up in the last thirty pages or so and just...ended. I would have preferred more of a resolution between David and Dolores that would warrant the entire first half of the novel's existence. Instead we get extended scenes of Dolores treating Zoe like she's Alexa.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Hey, Zoey.

How could I not request this based on the premise?

Yet, the premise is misleading because it's not really about an AI sex doll and Dolores, the wife of the man who ordered Zoey.

The narrative is about Dolores, and how her life, her childhood, the choices she's made, and what she's endured, have led her up to this point.

When Dolores discovers her husband's sex toy in the garage, it sets her on a path of self discovery, and a confrontation with a brutal truth she's denied from her past for too long.

Like some reviewers, with the rise of AI in our modern society, I expected the premise to be about the 'friendship' that develops between Zoey and Dolores, or what Dolores learns about herself through the sex doll, maybe empowering her in some way.

But, the story wasn't that at all; rather, the narrative were flashbacks from Dolores' stunted, dull perspective, viewing her childhood, adulthood and marriage, her relationship with her sister, mother, and stepfather and stepbrother through not so rose-colored glasses.

The story was darker and sadder than I thought so readers who may be trigged by suicide and abuse should take heed.

I didn't like Dolores; she was boring and indifferent, and perhaps that was the author's intention when developing the character or it was a result of the trauma she experienced, but I didn't care about her.

Zoey was a minor subplot to the real story, a woman coming to terms with repressed memories of abuse and trauma from her past, and how the trauma shaped her and her sister's life since.

3.75 stars-Dolores is a teacher, she is outgoing at school an with her sister, but quiet in her marriage. She enjoys silence and routine in her life, but that all changes when she discovers an AI doll in the garage. She confronts her husband and discovers that he is not happy, that their marriage is missing something and he needs more. The doll, Zoey becomes a friend to her in her husbands absence…Dolores and her sister Jacinta have trauma that keeps them distant from the men in their lives, and pain that they haven’t confronted yet. I agree with other reviewers that this may have worked better with a spouse who cheated rather than with the doll, but there is also a part of me that feels that the chocicesthe author made were right. The shifting timelines were a bit hard to track, and there were some short, unrelated, blurbs that felt kind of disjointed. However, the goal of making you feel the descension of a marriage and the way it felt to be the characters was definitely achieved. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc!

AI? S-E-X doll? A crumbling marriage? This should have landed for me. It didn’t. I did dnf

Thank you Little Brown for the ARC. IYKYK my reviews are always honest.

Writing: my fave type of pretentious wanker prose | Plot: didn't need the Zoey stuff | Ending: me heart

TW: miscarriages, child SA

MY OPINION

Another book featured in my list of most anticipated books of 2024 that I discussed on YouTube (shameless plug).

From the premise, it sounds like this will be similar to Annie Bot but from the perspective of the wife who discovers her husband's AI-powered sex doll. Welp, that was not the case whatsoever. I think this was packaged up as an AI companion book to capitalize on the popularity of ChatGPT etc but ultimately Zoey was pretty insignificant to the overall plot. If you removed Zoey from this book, it still works. In fact, it would've worked much better.

This is not a sci-fi book. This is not a thriller. This is a stressy n depressy (lite). If you liked The Loyalties, this is RIGHT up your alley. Same writing style, lots of bit-sized scenes, and minimal hand-holding. The timelines flip flops around and aren't clearly marked so keep your wits about you. Other than the weak ass Zoey subplot, this was STRONG. If you like books about how your childhood can fk you up nice and good for the future and basically ruin any chance at a happy and healthy romantic relationship, this is for you. Similar to My Dark Vanessa, It's also a great exploration of how there's not 'standard' for how CSA victims react.

Unfortunately I think the marketing will result in a lot of negative reviews. Not the author's fault if the publisher chose to market it this way, therefore I'm giving it 4 stars. I'm definitely interested to read her other works when I want to get in my pretentious wanker bag.

PROS AND CONS

Pros: loved the writing, the short scenes, and the themes explored, emotions were felt, no hand-holding

Cons: should've eliminated Zoey altogether and just replaced her with your bog-standard cheating—the story would've been much tighter and more focused. This is NOT about AI or companion bots. This is about sad human shit. Enjoy!!

Thank you NetGalley, Sarah Crossan, and Little, Brown and Company for allowing me to read an advanced copy of Hey, Zoey. I received an advanced reader copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

What an absolutely intriguing, thought provoking book. Dolores finds an AI sex doll, Zoey, that her husband keeps hidden away in their garage. This discovery leads to Dolores going through her past to uncover why she is the way she is in the present.

Each thought about the past is broken between different segments in which the present also comes into play. There is no direct timeline or order in which these thoughts occur. Everything is sort of jumbled around, yet it makes sense how it all strings together in the end.

Zoey makes Dolores question so much, even though this is not the intention of Zoey. The delicate approach to the overall theme played really well into the unique writing style the author used.

I was really disappointed with Hey, Zoey, but I will admit that it is partially my fault. The major problem was wrong expectations.

The premise sounded fantastic. Interactions between humans and AI have been done to death, but I’ve never come across this particular premise— the interaction between a woman and her husband’s sex robot. I was extremely interested in what the book would have to say.

Perhaps I did too much expecting from this book; I went into it anticipating a certain type of story-- a sci-fi/speculative fiction about the ethics of having sex with what is essentially a mindlessly-compliant woman --and what I actually got was a contemporary about a woman using her present to confront her past.

Zoey wasn’t as important a character as I wanted her to be. I think she could have just been a doll, minus the AI aspect, and the same message would have come across. I was really interested in seeing the conversations between these two women now that AI are coming up with intelligent, complex responses, but that was never the point of this book.

So... what about the actual story, not the one I thought I should be reading?

I think I would have liked it better if I went in with the right expectations, but it would not have been more than a 3-star read for me. There was way too much of Dolores and Gavin having these weird awkward conversations about nothing. It made me think of someone trying to emulate Sally Rooney, which always comes across as weird to me (see Cleopatra and Frankenstein).

There was also a lot of darting back and forth between the past and present, sometimes in very short snippets, to the extent that I often found it jarring. Also-- unless I am very confused, which is possible --the flashbacks did not appear to be in chronological order, making it quite difficult to follow sometimes.

I much preferred Crossan's Here Is the Beehive.

I thought this was really well written. I wished flashback portion flowed a little better and that Delores and Zoey's kinship was introduced a little sooner. Too much time was spent on her and David having these non conversations. I had a felling that the Gavin thing was a thing and I can appreciate that it was never said outloud.